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mystery of faith

The God who breathed stars into existence, who spoke and made the heavens created us out of dust, to be little mud men in relationship with him. What a mystery. What a privilege to be called sons and daughters because of the mind shattering love and grace and mercy of God.

Jesus, God’s plan A, took all of our sin, all of our garbage, all of our hurt on himself. All the things we have done and have yet to do. He bore it all. He did not come to condemn. As he was being beaten and nailed to a cross, He responded to the offense with “FORGIVE THEM!”.What a privilege it is to worship Him.

The prince of peace came in humility. The bread of life was broken so that WE might have life… so that The love of God might finally be revealed with such clarity and impact that nothing would mistake it.What a privilege it is to worship Him

And the curtain of the temple that separated the presence of God from man was torn in two, from top to bottom. The earth shook, and the rocks were split. The tombs also were opened. Bodies of the saints who had fallen asleep were raised. All that was created from beginning to end, Angels and demons, principalities and rulers, Satan and the religious, All of heaven and earth, all that is seen and all that is unseen suddenly woke with a realization… Through the splinters of wood and the poured out blood, revelation came. “Truly this was the Son of God!”What a privilege it is to worship Him

To seal the deal Jesus rose from the grave, fully man and fully God. He returned as a teacher, friend, healer, gardener… as God…He ministered to followers that would change the world as an act of worship.What a privilege it is to worship Him

He ascended into heaven and left us with the Holy Spirit. The living God and the same power that raised christ from the grave to be with us always. So that as we draw near to the Good father we can be reminded that his love endures forever. What a privilege it is to worship Him

I pray that out of his glorious riches he may strengthen you with power through his Spirit in your inner being,so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith. And I pray that you, being rooted and established in love,may have power, together with all the Lord’s holy people, to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ,and to know this love that surpasses knowledge—that you may be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God. – Eph 3:16-19

ok so normally I do the Text-Fessional within the set list post. Those days are over folks. Now I do this because I don’t have a video camera, but I am thinking of going to Audio-Fessionals. That would put me on a different list though.

Alright enough of that…So last week I had a discussion with the pastor about our services and a bunch of visitors commented that the service was too long. Let me preface by saying that almost 90% of the church goers here are roman catholic and are very used to 1 hour services. Ours ran around 1 hour 45 min. Not too long, but longer then Roman catholic service. We do readings and creed, communion, and liturgy…along with that tons of music that is woven into the service from modern to old to liturgical. That is our church identity. We call it 3 streams blended worship. My definition of blended worship is not mixing hymns with matt redman. It is mixing the old with the new. Our service is framed around the Lords table and everything culminates at communion.

So with that said we had to shorten the service a little without messing with the integrity of what we are. So I did a poll and tons of people helped me out. we shortened the sermon to 30 min and moved a little aroung and ended the service in 1.5 hours. BRILLIANT! it worked and nobody was the wiser.

Uh…moving on to the music..

Great set this week..opened with I know that my redeemer lives. Great hymn…Mark Heard did a great version of it on the at the foot of the cross CD’s from the choir.

Went into the gloria…dropped the key from D to C..

Then we broke the fast song at the start mold and went into classic rushing Wind…it was a great song to open the praise set…prepare our heart…

“Jesus Your the one Who set my spirit free”

And then right into O Praise him chorus…and the rest of the song…I love this song its a real call to worship and and illustrates us singing with all of creation and the angels above.

Jumped into You amaze me…ok this song is from Michael Neale…I was first introduced to this at the integrity worship conference a few months ago and I can’t stop listening to it. This song just tugs at my spirit. It was amazing.

We did My new song that I co-wrote with my dad More of You. This song has really become a favorite with our church. People come up to me every week because the words just get into there sprirt.

“Take the world, give me You….Take my Heart Lord and make it new”

Communion we did the sanctus and mystery of faith (Liturgical music) ..And then into one of the best cross songs ever Sweetly Broken. Brilliant song and really makes you focus and tune into what Christ did for us. Then into super slow version of bless his name…and when communion ended I sped it up to normal tempo and volume. The 2 songs were perfect….thank you for the cross…thanks you for the blood….and then into…come sing for joy and bless his name.

Then we ended with Never Let Go…nuff said that song is just freakin’ great…and the congregation just loves it.